Photos taken in 1998

Canal Park is similar to
many new parks being built today. It is a park built in the downtown with
a brick exterior that fits in well with the surrounding buildings. But
the reason for building downtown in this city is not evident. The night
I was there it was completely deserted, and the ball game was the only
thing going on. It was almost an eerie feeling sitting in this brand new
park in downtown Akron, while the rest of the surrounding area was dead.
Downtown parks are good in some locales, but I don't think Akron is one
of them. Despite this, the park is still pretty impressive. Slightly bigger
than other double A stadiums like Norwich and Binghamton, the Aeros are
having no problem filling it almost every night. Like other new stadiums,
the concourse area sits above the seating bowl and is covered by the press
box and luxury box structure. A bleacher section is located in right field.
A restaurant and gift shop are located down the first base line. There
are numerous concessions stands with a good variety of offerings. The back
drop is an interesting one with several large buildings. The canal runs
behind the outfield fence, but is not visible from inside the park. There
are a couple aspects about the park I didn't like however. First, almost
all the seats on the third base side are obstructed from the left field
corner because the way the seats are angled. I would not expect to see
this at such a new park where supposedly there are "no bad seats in the
place." The other aspect I disliked was the high prices - especially for
parking, which was $5.
The flimsy scorecards were also a little high at $1.50. A mascot, Orbit,
was on hand but was absolutely useless - maybe because the Blues Brothers
were there to entertain that night. Overall, a comfortable new stadium,
but not as nice as some of the other new parks that have been built.